The results of referendums have been announced in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, showing the majority of voters support self-rule, amid an intensified military operation by Kiev which resulted in several deaths.

Almost 90 percent of voters in Donetsk Region have endorsed
political independence from Kiev, the head of the Central
Election Commission of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s
Republic’, Roman Lyagin, announced.

“Counting the ballots proved to be surprisingly easy – the
number of people who said ‘no’ was relatively small and there
appeared to be only a tiny proportion of spoiled ballots, so we
managed to carry out counting quite fast. The figures are as
follows: 89.07 percent voted ‘for’, 10.19 percent voted ‘against’
and 0.74 percent of ballots were rendered ineligible,”
Lyagin told journalists.

In Lugansk Region 96.2 percent of voters supported the region’s
self-rule, according to the final figures announced by the local
election commission.

Despite fears that amid Kiev’s intensified military crackdown –
which killed at least two civilians on referendum day – the
turnout will be low, in both of the region it was unexpectedly
high. In Donetsk it reached 74.87%, while in Lugansk the central
election commission says 75% of eligible voters came to the
polling stations.

With such a huge turnout, the referendums have been recognized as
valid by both election commissions.

The acting president of Ukraine, Aleksandr Turchinov, has
condemned as a “farce” referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk
regions.

Following the referendum, officials of the self-proclaimed
Donetsk People’s Republic have not ruled out that in case the
situation in the region deteriorates, they may have to request
peacekeeping forces to be deployed.

“We will try to cope with it on our own; we don’t want this
confrontation to increase, especially on our territory,”
Denis Pushilin, co-chairman of the Donetsk People’s Republic,
said. "If the situation deteriorates, we reserve the right to
ask for a peacekeeping contingent,” he added.

Pushilin has also said that within hours the Donetsk People’s
Republic may decide if it is going to stay with Ukraine or not.
The republic has also decided not to take part in Ukraine’s
presidential elections on May 25, according to media reports.

The referendums, according to Turchinov, were inspired by Russia
to “totally destabilize the situation in Ukraine, disrupt the
presidential election and overthrow the Ukrainian
government.”

Calling the regional voting on self-determination illegal, Kiev
sent its recently formed paramilitary forces to Donetsk and
Lugansk regions on Sunday, in an apparent move to disrupt
referendums.

As armored military vehicles blocked passage to polling stations,
voting in four towns across Lugansk region was disrupted.
In the Donetsk town of Krasnoarmeysk, the National Guard shot
at a crowd and killed two civilians who were protesting their
attempt to seize a polling station.

The people’s governor of the Donetsk Region, Pavel Gubarev, told
journalists on Sunday that Donetsk and Lugansk will emerge as new
legal entities as a result of the referendum.

“The referendum for us is about creating a new state
paradigm,” he said.

Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the people’s mayor of Slavyansk, Donetsk
Region, where some of the heaviest fighting between Ukrainian
troops and self-defense activists took place, said the next step
following the referendum would be developing closer ties with
Russia.

One of the organizers of the referendum in Lugansk, Vasily
Nikitin, told journalists that the region will appeal to the
United Nations to recognize its independence, RIA Novosti
reports. Nikitin also said Lugansk was not going to take part in
the Ukrainian presidential election on May 25.

Moscow hopes the results of the referendums in eastern Ukraine
will instigate dialogue between Kiev and the regions that voted
in favor of self-rule, according to the Kremlin’s press-service.

“Moscow respects the will of the people in Donetsk and
Lugansk and hopes that the practical realization of the outcome
of the referendums will be carried out in a civilized manner,
without resorting to violence, through dialogue between
representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk,” the statement
reads.

The Kremlin says it welcomes all mediation efforts, including
those by the OSCE.

Spokesman for the president, Dmitry Peskov earlier explained that
Putin “did not urge, but recommended” that the votes be
postponed. However, the spokesman says that “even considering
the authority of the Russian president,” it was difficult
for Donetsk and Lugansk authorities to follow his recommendation
amid Kiev's ongoing military crackdown.

Both the EU and US have dismissed the ballots in eastern Ukraine
as illegal.

“If these referenda go forward, they will violate
international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The
United States will not recognize the results of these illegal
referenda,” US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said
in a statement late on Saturday.

The European Union came up with a similar comment, adding that
the referendums ran counter to the Geneva agreement on
de-escalation reached by Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the United
States last month.

"The so-called referenda in ... parts of Lugansk and Donetsk
Regions were illegal and we do not recognize the outcome. Those
who organized the referenda have no democratic legitimacy,"
Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton, said in emailed comments to Reuters.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter
described the referendums in eastern Ukraine as “incompatible
with the Ukrainian constitution and therefore illegal.”

“Such provocative actions must be avoided,” Burkhalter
said at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Despite the rejection of the referendums by Kiev and most Western
countries, it won’t be so easy to ignore the results,
international affairs expert Serdja Trifkovich believes.

“After the referendum it will no longer be possible for the
regime in Kiev to say that they do not want to negotiate with the
so-called terrorists,” Trifkovich told RT. “They will be
forced to acknowledge internally that they are facing the level
of agreement among the people in the eastern regions that will
prove it rather difficult to deal with by force.”